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Here are a few important quick tips for new real estate agents, from a 15-year veteran real estate agent:
- Don’t obsess on choosing a broker. If you change your mind, it’s really no big deal to switch brokers.
- Sign with a broker, even if you are not ready to go full-time yet. Legally, you need to “hang your hat” somewhere to get access to the MLS and other real estate memberships. You don’t have to start working full-time when you sign up with a broker. Just let your broker know that you have some things you want to do first before working full time.
- Learn to take control of your time. Set a rule on your phone so that it only rings between noon and 7:00 p.m. each day. Also turn off email, text, and social media notifications…you do not need to be notified every time you get an email or text. Set specific times of the day when you check your email and phone. Don’t let others control your time and daily agenda! Learn to take control of your time.
- Stay focused on your plan. You have to figure out what works for you and your personality, style, goals, and market. Just because something worked for some agent in another market, doesn’t mean it will (or won’t) work for you in your market. Stay focused on your marketing plan and don’t get sidetracked on the latest gimmick or new technology.
- Become the local area expert. Your clients will expect you to know you’re a lot about your area—the neighborhoods, schools, amenities, sales numbers, PROs and CONs, etc. Start driving the area and learning your neighborhoods.
- Don’t worry that “it’s all about the listings.” As a new real estate agent, it may be easier and less expensive to find buyer-clients than it is to find seller-clients. Always remember that most buyers are sellers too.
- Set up a business Google account and use that Gmail email address for your real estate business. Do not use your personal email account. Also be prepared to get a lot of spam on this account.
- Be ruthless about marking unsolicited email as spam and unsubscribing. People don’t have the right to spam you just because you’re a real estate agent. That goes for other real estate agents who want to share their listings with you. (Duh…that’s what the MLS is for!) You’re email inbox is going to get out of control if you don’t actively unsubscribe from unwanted email. If the sender doesn’t provide an easy Unsubscribe link, then mark it as spam.
- Get a Google Voice phone number to forward to your cell phone. Use this number for all your business advertising and accounts. Do not advertise your real cell phone number.
- Do not worry about getting a designation in your first year, since less than 2% consumers care about designations. Focus on laying a strong foundation of the basics first.
- Don’t depend on your Sphere of Influence (people you already know) to be your only source of leads. Develop at least one other effective lead generating system to generate leads because the people you already know may also know several other real estate agents and may not want to work with you, for a while, because they know you are inexperienced. Also, friends and family may not want you to know their financial situation.
- Find a lender or two that you can depend on. Qualifying buyers financially is a lender’s job…so is creating a Closing cost estimates. Know a couple of lenders that you can recommend to your clients at the beginning of a transaction.
- Learn how to do screenshots. You need to be able to send clients information quickly and easily. The best way is to send screenshots from your smart phone or computer. SnagIt (by TechSmith) is the screenshot program recommended for computers. For your smart phone, do an Internet search for “how to capture screenshot on iphone 12” (for example).
- Sign up at Agent Success Builder and get access to all the helpful resources in our library! 🙂
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